Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 12(1), 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2011.536052

Abstract

Like the papers it speaks to, Jessica Benjamin’s deft discussion works at once on 3 different levels: the clinical moment where mind and society meet, the critique of social and psychoanalytic theory, and the assessment of social forces. It aims to “highlight what is gained or lost or made more troublesome by admitting the intensity of interpellation, which our psychoanalyst authors allow themselves to experience.” Following the “thread of mourning” marking each essay, Benjamin weaves the essayists’ diverse voices to lay out a series of queries about clinical work, mind, and culture. Unfolding in a matrix of psychoanalytic concepts, social thought, and feminist theory, this discussion agrees with some of the ideas found herein and demurs about others, thereby complicating the already intricate stories these authors tell. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)